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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Thank you for the great advice about the Halloween quilt. You are all so helpful, so I am going to ask you for more advice. One of my Spring to Finish challenges is to figure out what quilt pattern I want to make for my sister. I think I have that figured out now. It is called Fall Frolic and it is from the 40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts book by Evelyn Sloppy. Nicole has a picture of the pattern on her blog.

These are the fabrics I have for the quilt. The pattern calls for 11 light and 11 dark fat quarters. I have darks, medium darks, medium lights and lights. What I am wondering is if I should try to get more of the creams, or can I use some of the light blues and greens? I also found a quilt on flickr made using the same pattern that mixes some of the medium and dark colours. Any advice given is greatly appreciated. These fabrics have been screaming at me lately to be a quilt. If I did not have a couple of upcoming deadlines, I would do them right away.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Here are my April blocks for Audrie for Bee Beautiful. I had fun making them. I just wish they had turned out a little better. It was the first time I had ever used a template. I still have yet to decide what I am going to do for my month. Every week I change my mind to something different.

I need some help with my Halloween quilt. I want to do a completely scrappy backing. I have a lot of Halloween fabric left over and I would love to use it up. Some are scraps, and I have a few fat quarters, and I think a bit of yardage. If anyone has done this before, knows of any tutorials, or knows of pictures I could look at it would really be appreciated.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Once again I am participating in Jacquie's Spring to Finish. I found it really helpful last year. Your finishes can be anything you want and do not have to be crafting related. Here are mine in no particular order:

Remove wallpaper from my hallway.

Decorate my dining room.

Get rid of some toys and books.

Organize my children's clothing.

Get a label on my friend's quilt and give it to her.

Pick a pattern for my sister's quilt.

Finish my mom's quilt top.

Finish my zig zag quilt top.

Put together my guild blocks into a table runner.

Quilt my tulip table runner.

10 seems like a good number to stop at. May 10 is the half way point of the challenge and it ends May 31. I'll let you know how I do.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Here is my fourth quilt block for the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. I have been really enjoying this quilt along. I have actually been able to keep up with it.

Here are all 4 of them together.

I have started on a new project and I am at my least favourite part; the cutting. Here is the pile of fabric ready to be sewn. I love how from cutting the same shapes you can have an infinite number of ways of putting together a quilt. I have to admit I have changed my mind about a quilt design after having cut it.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Here are the 9 patches I had been working on since last year for Amanda Jean's quilt along. I have figured out what pattern I am going to make with them and it will take quite a few more 9 patches to make. The quilt will end up looking something like this. Luckily, I have a few more charm packs to help me reach my goal.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

How ironic! I have time for the Friday Night Sew-In but not to report on it. My daughter attended her 1st birthday party today. She was very sweet and quieter than I expected. Here is my zig zag quilt. I got all the rows sewn together. Now I just need to add a block at the top and bottom and add the borders.

I started this quilt on the February Friday Night Sew-In, so it was neat to get the top done on the April Sew-In. I have a few other projects to finish, so it might be the next sew-in before I work on it again.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Here is finally, my finished quilt for my friend who retired in December. The pattern is Strip Search by Gudrun Erla, but I did not think that would be a good name to name it. I have decided to call it Walking Down the Garden Path. It was easy to make, and definitely one I would be willingly to make again sometime. This is also #3 for my PHD Challenge with Myra. #4 is at the quilter's and I have been working on the last four. I have this linked up to Amy's Sew and Tell Fridays. If you have a finish, you can put a link and also see what other people have done.

I am also hoping to be able to participate in tonight's Friday Night Sew In. I would love to be able to get my zig-zag quilt top finished. Come and join me, and we can virtually sew together!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Okay, so for now (except for finishing up my guild's swap) I am all done swapping. You would think that would mean taking a break, right? Of course not! I am in the Bee Beautiful bee and I am absolutely loving it. It has been so much fun to be in a bee with some old friends, or should I say long-time friends, and making some new ones. The only thing I feel badly about it is that I am the only Canadian in the group, so it takes longer for my fabric to come, which means that I start later than everyone else and of course, it also takes longer for the finished block to arrive.

The Bee Beautiful women are truly beautiful and have been so wonderful that I decided that I wanted to be in another bee. I had talked to Ariane about starting a bee for Canadian quilters (there are always less of us) and then I found the Quilting Bee Blocks group on flickr . It has a list of bees looking for people. I looked through the list and there was a Canadian one looking for a few more members. I joined the Sew Modern Bee, and so did Ariane, and Sarah. Now we have 12 members and are starting the bee in May.

I guess I have been stung by a couple of bees.I may also have been stung by the quilt a long as well. I'll let you know next week. It all depends on how much time I have or think I have, which is always less than I really do.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I read Sandi's blog about Weird Things on Saturday and then on Sunday something really weird happened to me. I was watching a Canadian Home and Garden Show on Sunday evening. The host was renovating a house and he was looking for some furniture to put in it. He decided to go on to Craigslist to see if he could find anything. After the show was over, I got curious if we had a local Craigslist, and so I decided to get on the computer to check. I went on to the computer and yes, we did have local listings for Craigslist, but very few under the hobbies and crafts category. I then for some reason decided to check out Kijiji to see what it had. Once again, I went under the hobbies and craft category. That is when my heart almost stopped. Someone in my community was selling a beautiful sewing table cabinet very cheaply. They were downsizing and the table was going to be to big for their new home. I replied to the ad right away. I got a reply back that I could come take a look at it Monday evening.

My husband and I went there on Monday night and it was all I could do to hold back the tears. The table was beautiful and obviously well taken care for. The last weird thing happened when the woman told me that she had been planning on taking the ad down, and that I had responded just in time. She felt badly as it had been a gift from her husband but it was just too big. I did tell her that I am a quilter and I hope she felt better knowing that it is going to be much loved. She told me that she did not quilt, but had been thinking of doing it. I reassured her that quilting was easy and maybe after all of this there will be a new quilter in the world. Wouldn't that be wonderful!

Here is my new pride and joy!

After I wrote this blog, I realized that on Saturday Myra had posted about a wonderful rocker she had found on Kijiji. There must be something in the water! Whatever it may be I hope you get some of it too!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Well, I kissed and made up with my quilts this weekend! I have not worked on any of them since January. I have been working on guild blocks, bee blocks, charity blocks, Christmas swap blocks, and potholders, everything but my quilts. One of my quilts and I decided to part ways for a while. I could not decide if I wanted to do anything more with my pinwheel quilt, so I gave up and sent it out to the quilter's.

The second quilt I finally got put together after a long song and dance after 3 years. I just need to add a border to it and it will be ready for the next step.

The third quilt I worked on was my zigzag baby quilt. I had done all of the blocks on one of the Friday night Sew-Ins and this weekend I was able to get half of it pieced together. (This is the before picture, not the half sewn quilt top.) My camera is out of battery power

The quilts were so happy to have me back, and I was happy to be with them. I also should have another PHD done this week for Myra's challenge.

Friday, April 9, 2010

I am technically still in 2 swaps, that have been organized with my guild. Here are my last blocks that I handed in on Wednesday. Now with the blocks I have received I have to make something for June. I am going to make a 2 sided runner. The side with the country blocks I will use in the fall and the side with the brights I will use in the spring.

I got to work on one of my PHD this week. It is great to see them moving along towards completion. I would like to say to all of you wonderful quilters out there, please no more inspiration! I am really trying hard to get my PHD done and it is difficult to stay focused when you are all doing such amazing things. I have to admit though, it is giving me more of a push to get things done, so I can start on some new projects.

I try not to brag too much, but my son won an award at school yesterday for his artistic ability. It was wonderful to see him with such a huge smile on his face. We went out to his favourite restaurant after, and had chocolate cake for dessert.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Here is what I really hope is my last swap for a while. I finished up my Potholder swap a couple of days ago and mailed it off.

It has been so long since I have worked on any of my quilts. The weather was so nice yesterday that we spent most of the day outside but I did take a bit of time to put a binding on one of my quilts. I also got out a couple of others so I could see how much work was left on them. The re-organization has been really helpful.

I won a giveaway from Em. I had to say what fish I was from a collection of 9 and I chose the pink one. Here is the fishy prize I won. I don't remember which one, but one of the fish candies was made in Canada. I thought that was neat.

The candy is already gone. Thanks goodness for fabric "candy". I love the marbling effect of the blue fabric and the snails and turtles are so cute.

I hope you have a good Easter, and if you don't celebrate Easter I hope you have the incredible weather we have been experiencing. I know it is Mother Nature's version of an April Fool's Day joke.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

It is a beautiful day here today, but I may need some April Showers to catch up on all my quilting. March was a very busy month for me personally, and while I did not a completed project finished I did manage to get all of my block commitments done which made me very happy. Here is Angela's block for my Bee Beautiful group. She had requested right angles, with no triangles or circles. The rest was up to us.

I am not really sure what April is going to bring for me. I am finishing up my last swap (famous last words according to my dh) for a while. I have lots of quilts on the go. I just need to figure out how to prioritize all of it. I am ready to slow down a bit and I think my children are too. Last week when I went to the AQS, my daughter told me she was worried that I was not going to come back because I love quilting so much. It was great to see all of the Moda fabric that I only get to drool at on the computer, but it was great to be back.